About

Why ChooseWell?

ChooseWell provides information to help you make decisions about your health care. These decisions matter.

It’s been designed to help you find a health care provider, learn more about why following medical advice is so important and be informed when talking with your doctor about which hospital or facility is the best service site for you and your family.

Remember, it’s important to always expect the best.

Why trust ChooseWell?

ChooseWell is not the product of any one health system, insurance company or consumer group.
It was created by the Midwest Health Initiative with the help and guidance of physicians, patients, and hospital, employer, labor union and health plan leaders. The Midwest Health Initiative is a non-profit organization that brings these groups together so they can work to improve health in the St. Louis region and the quality and affordability of its health care.

What is high-quality health care?

With any product or service, customers see quality differently. Imagine you want to buy a car. Your priorities may be good mileage and low maintenance costs. Other consumers might make safety ratings No. 1.

Health care consumers are no different. Some want to know how often a physician’s patients received care consistent with national recommendations. Others are more interested in whether a hospital’s patients would recommend it.

About The Midwest Health Initiative

The Midwest Health Initiative (MHI) is St. Louis’ regional health improvement collaborative. It brings together physicians and patients, employers, hospitals, unions, and health plan representatives to improve the health of our region and the safety, quality and affordability of its health care. MHI holds a vision that St. Louis will one day lead the nation in health, care quality and affordability.

The Leapfrog Group is a national patient safety organization. It was founded almost two decades ago in response to growing concerns for the large number of medical mistakes which occur in America. It works to make health care safe on behalf of patients and their families.

Primary Care Measures

Information about care provided by primary care clinicians comes from the Midwest Health Initiative’s (MHI) community data set. This data is contributed by St. Louis health plans, employers and labor unions and represents services provided to over 1 million commercially-insured individuals in the St. Louis region. At this time, ChooseWell only shows information for care provided by St. Louis area primary care clinicians.

Primary care clinicians provide many health services, including preventive care, such as cancer screenings; chronic care for conditions like asthma, high-blood pressure and diabetes and acute care for times when you have a sore throat or ear infection. They also help patients manage their care across many health care providers and specialists.

The measures in ChooseWell show how often primary care clinicians’ patients received recommended care. Measure results are reported at the practice site since most primary care clinicians work with others as a team in one location.

Don’t forget, patients are part of the team too. So, follow your clinician’s instructions. Ask questions when you don’t understand and answer your clinician’s questions as fully and accurately as possible.

Thank you to our community partners:

The Midwest Health Initiative would like to thank its many community partners who contributed their time and expertise to the development of ChooseWellSTL.org. For more than a year, physicians, consumers, and employer, health system and health plan representatives have worked together to build this site. We are grateful for their commitment to the Midwest Health Initiative and to high-quality, affordable health care in St. Louis. MHI would also like to recognize its analytical partner, Saint Louis University Center for Outcomes Research (SLUCOR) and its technical partner, Insite Advice.